Mr. Hodge’s Homework

chain rhyme – rhyming scheme where the line of the first stanza is linked to a rhyme in the next stanza, (aba bcb cdc…, aaba bbcb ccdc…, etc.), ending stanza loops back to the first stanza or ends with the last rhyme repeated (aba bcb cdc dad, aaba bbcb ccdc dddd, etc.).

Iamb – a metrical foot consisting of two syllables, a short or unaccented syllable followed by a long accented syllable.

Iambic Pentameter – made up of two syllables repeated five times in succession where an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable within a line of verse.

Meter – a measure of rhyme; (the unit of meter is the foot) Metrical lines are named for the number of feet in a line. (1) monometer, (2) dimeter, (3) trimeter, (4) tetrameter, (5) pentameter, (6) hexameter, (7) heptameter (8) octameter.

Pause – intervals between syllables of verse.

Stress – special emphasis on a word, syllable, or phrase with a line of verse.

Versification – in regard to meter and rhyme, versification is the art of writing verses.

Imagery – to evoke a mental image (sometimes emotional), figurative language.

Irony – expression of words used to convey an opposite meaning from the usual sense.

Metaphor – a term used to treat two things that are not the same as equals such as “The universe is God’s playground”.

Oxymoron – the joining of two words that seem to be contradictory (opposites), but offer a unique effect such as living deaths, freezing fires, deafening silence, and pretty ugly.

Personification – a form of metaphor where an inanimate object, animal, or idea is given human-like characteristics such as “Night swallowed the sun’s last ray of light”.

Prose – ordinary or plain everyday language used in speech or writing with no patterns or rhymes.

Pun – a play on words that sound similar for a humorous effect.

Repetition – a repeating sound, line, syllable, etc. bring reinforcement to the meaning of a poem, fulfillment.

Rhyme – a recurrence of similar ending sounds at the ends of a poetic line/verse.

Simile – a comparison between two unlike things using like or as, etc. such as “Your eyes are like sparkling diamonds.”

* A verse can be one line of poetry or a stanza.

Alexandrian – a line of poetry 12 syllables (or 13 if the last syllable is unstressed) consisting 6 iambic feet.

Blank Verse – poetry written without rhymes usually in iambic pentameterin English verse.

Chain Verse – like chain rhyme, but instead of linking rhymes, words, phrases or lines are repeated in succeeding stanzas.

envoy (envoi) – a short final stanza of a poem.

Free Verse – a verse form free of traditional rules of versification, (freedom from fixed meter or rhyme).

Open Form – created through shifts, leaps, hesitations, and fragmentations in lines. It conforms to no set form, structure,or rhythmic patterns.

Refrain (chorus) – a repeated verse within a poem or song pertaining to a central topic.

Stanza Forms – names describing the number of lines is an stanzaic unit, (2) couplet, (3) tercet, (4) quatrain, (5) quintet (6) sestet, (7) septet, (8) octave.